Free Republic

Tears filled the eyes of some Vietnam veterans who were warmly greeted with cheers from their family and friends Sunday in an re-enactment of their original return from the war, when they were often met with angry demonstrators and harsh headlines. The ceremony was a first for the 101st Airborne Division and the Army, said Maj. Patrick Seiber, an Army spokesman based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. "Our hope is that other units and other posts will follow our lead in having this type of ceremony," he said...

From Commander Fitzpatrick's site... "Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506Th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the...

<p>In a 2001 interview with The Roanoke Times, Darrell "Shifty" Powers talked about some of his experiences during World War II.</p> <p>Powers, a United States Army paratrooper and sharpshooter, belonged to Easy Company, part of the legendary 101st Airborne Division. He recalled a bitterly cold day in the Ardennes when he was able to draw down on a German sniper, sighting his target by the misty cloud of the man's breath. He killed him with one shot.</p>

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (CNN) -- The 101st Airborne's senior commander in effect ordered his soldiers Wednesday not to commit suicide, a plea that came after 11 suicides since January 1, two of them in the past week. "If you don't remember anything else I say in the next five or 10 minutes, remember this -- suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad," Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend told his forces. "It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it's got to stop...

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky -- At Fort Campbell, an installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, at least 11 Soldiers have committed suicide this year - the most at any Army base. Commanders have set aside routine duties for three days to find and help Soldiers at risk of killing themselves as they struggle with the stress of war. From January to March, the base averaged one suicide per week, Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend said Wednesday,.... "But last week we had two. Two in a week," Townsend said. "This is not a place where Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division want to...

Lest We Forget: Screaming Eagles Know Freedom’s Cost The men of the 101st Airborne Division, or Screaming Eagles, train. (Courtesy of US Army) By MICHAEL P. TREMOGLIE, The Bulletin Friday, May 22, 2009 It is said that freedom is not free. The wise person knows this to be true. However, it takes more than wisdom to know the exact value. If anyone knows the price, it is the men of the 101st Airborne Division. They know it all too well because they have paid it many times. They are known as the Screaming Eagles, the men of the 101st Airborne. They are...

Battle of the Bulge Newsreel http://www.army.mil/botb/newsreel.html The Battle of the Bulge: Sixty-Three Years Ago Courtesy The United States Army Center of Military History Early on the misty winter morning of 16 December 1944, over 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched Adolf Hitler's last bid to reverse the ebb in his fortunes that had begun when Allied troops landed in France on D-day. Seeking to drive to the English Channel coast and split the Allied armies as they had done in May 1940, the Germans struck in the Ardennes Forest, a seventy-five-mile stretch of the front characterized by dense...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2008 – About 3,000 soldiers assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team will leave Iraq nearly two months earlier than planned, military officials said. Improved security and decreased violence across the unit’s area of operations in northwestern Baghdad is enabling the early redeployment of the soldiers back to Fort Campbell, Ky., Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today. The unit is commencing pack-up operations, Whitman said, and its return window is around the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. Central Command chief, and Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of Multinational...

While a Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier searches a vehicle, an Iraqi policeman pulls security in the northwestern Baghdad community of Ghazaliyah, Iraq, Aug. 29, 2008. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Vanderboegh, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs. BAGHDAD --- During a joint patrol with Iraqi Police, Capt. Michael Kolton, a native of Fairfax Station, Va., stopped to talk with a group of men standing in the shade of a cluster of trees. The conversation went from questions regarding security, to the future of Iraq, elections and the Iraqi Police. “The Iraqi people would rather have Iraqis fix their own problems,�...

August 06, 2008, 0:15 a.m. An Appointment in SamarraAs I prepare to return to that ancient and long-troubled city, I'll be expecting the unexpected. By Pete Hegseth SAMARRA, Iraq: A few days after insurgents killed two of his bodyguards, Asaad Ali Yaseen sat in his living room with a pistol beside him and pondered the challenges of running this city. As if on cue, a U.S. soldier burst in to announce that a sniper’s bullet had just struck a military vehicle parked outside. Mr. Yaseen and his guest, U.S. Army Maj. Steven Delvaux, barely stirred. “It would be good...

<p>Dedicated in memory of all those who landed in Normandy June 6, 1944.</p> <p>In loving memory and with eternal gratitude. Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Uncle Ralph. At ease, fellas. Bravo Zulu.</p>

So my friend 1st Lt. Brett is coming back from Iraq after a tour with the {OPSEC] Division. What do we do and where do we take him in So. Cal. to let him know how happy we are that he's back in the world and safe. And that we appreciate his time in the sandbox. It's got to be legal and fun.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2008 – U.S. troops found a diary belonging to an al Qaeda in Iraq leader that has Coalition forces believing the terrorist organization is “on its heels,” a senior military official in Baghdad said this morning. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team on Nov. 3, 2007, captured a diary belonging to Abu Tariq, an al Qaeda emir in control of five battalions within two sectors, U.S. Air Force Col. Donald J. Bacon, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call. The soldiers found the diary during...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., Feb. 1, 2008 – Cold drizzle and hot metal rained upon the ground here yesterday as a group of 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) soldiers honed their mortar- and howitzer-targeting skills in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan in April. Forward observer Army Spc. Daniel L. Howes watches 81 mm and 120 mm mortar shells and 105 mm howitzer rounds explode down range during a training exercise at Fort Campbell, Ky., Jan. 31, 2008. Howes is among about 3,800 4th Brigade Combat Team soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) that will deploy to Afghanistan in...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Before they leave for Iraq, thousands of troops with the 101st Airborne Division line up at laptop computers to take a test: basic math, matching numbers and symbols, and identifying patterns. They press a button quickly to measure response time. It's all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers' brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose and treat the soldiers if they suffer a traumatic brain injury — the signature injury of the Iraq war. "This allows the Army to be much more proactive," said Lt. Col. Mark McGrail,...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A commander of three U.S. Soldiers killed in Iraq in an ambush-kidnapping disputes military investigators' findings that the troops had been told to guard a bridge for up to 36 hours straight. In his first public comments on the gruesome attack last June, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk told The Associated Press that Soldiers were asked to come back to base often for rest. But he also said checkpoints were undermanned, and that his commanders rejected his requests for more troops in the particularly dangerous part of Iraq where the Soldiers were attacked. "I don't believe that...

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year. Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement. Cortez, of Barstow, California, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

Tonight the History Channel Shootout does D-day stories. The first segment is on Bracourt Manner and Winters attack. It is well done. Other segments are the church and other D-day battles.

I just read about this petition to get Major Winters a Medal of Honor, for his action on 6 June 1944 at Brecourt Manor, to disable a battery of German 105mm guns, that were shelling Utah beach. The award was passed by Congress in 2002(HR2790) To award the MOH. It has been stalled by an under secretary of Defence, and has not been sent to Rumsfeld's desk. Major Winters is 87 years old and in ill health with Parkinson's Disease, and a weak heart.

Statement by Maj. Dick Winters Former Commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division(title edited for length) WASHINGTON, DC - Maj. Dick Winters (U.S. Army Ret.) issued the following statement regarding the President's support of men and women serving in the armed forces: "The President's actions on behalf of our servicemen and women show his deep respect for all who wear the uniforms of our armed forces. President Bush has overseen a 21 percent increase in military pay since taking office and has ensured that our troops in the field have what they need to win the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism on D-Day, along with accolades in the book, "Band of Brothers." Now, 61 years later, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., is pushing for the retired Army major from Hershey, Pa., to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest medal for valor in combat. Weldon announced Monday during a D-Day observation service in Folsom, Pa., he plans to file legislation that would upgrade Winters' Distinguished Service Cross — the second highest honor — to the Medal of Honor. This is the second attempt to obtain the medal for...

Mike Fumento was a guest on the Mike Rosen show on 850am KOA here in Denver Wednesday (Nov. 23rd) to talk about his recent October 2006 trip to Ramadi, Iraq. Mike talks about the REAL story from the one of the most dangerous places in the country. Rosen Replay 11/22/06 10-11AM (about 45 minutes, MP3) Guest: Mike Fumento, journalist for "The Weekly Standard" talks about his latest article, "Return to Ramadi."Click here for part one of the interview Rosen Replay 11/22/06 11-11:45AM (about 30 minutes, MP3) Mike Fumento continued. Click here for part two of the interview --- Mike Fumento's...

Photos by Plea Deal and [Mrs] Trooprally WASHINGTON, DC, 9/08/06-- Two officers in full camo uniforms waved enthusiastically as their vehicle exited Walter Reed Army Medical Center to be greeted by our troop-support rally spread over the four corners of the gates. We had arrived and had set up our displays while they were inside the hospital visiting wounded members of their unit. Seeing the DC Chapter's huge banners and dozens of U.S. flags, they wheeled their vehicle back around and stopped at the northwest corner to talk with the young people who were gathered there to hold signs, wave...

Milblogger BlackFive has just released a new book that contains dispatches from our outstanding men and women of the US military who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. If it weren't for the milbloggers much of the good news from Iraq and Afghanistan would never become widely known by the American people. --- It is the work of over 50 Americans who tell their stories about the experiences around the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In it you will meet: * The Warriors. Snipers, tankers, grunts. Readers who have never heard a shot fired in anger will come closer to...

On Aug. 6, Sgt. Paul Cortez will face the first steps in the military trial process. Cortez will undergo an Article 32 hearing in Iraq for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family while serving in Mahmudiya.

(watch closely and you'll see a soccer ball dropped to an Iraqi child from an American helicopter) --- From Steffan Tubbs at 850 KOA --- This is just amazing... sent to me from a soldier in Iraq on Monday. Take a look... this is why it was worth doing our soccer ball drive! Please, tell a friend... and just when you think you're having a tough day, imagine being the little boy in this video. Look at his "yard" and his environment. Man, we're lucky. Video -http://www.850koa.com/pages/blog/Soccer_Ball_Drop.wmv(windows media player, 31 seconds) Comments: Steffan - I'm glad the file worked and...

Ramadi, Iraq Terrorist-infested Ramadi in the wild west of Iraq is for U.S. troops the meanest place in the country, "the graveyard of the Americans" as graffiti around town boast. There is no better place to observe American troops and the fledgling Iraqi army in combat. That's why I came. When military public affairs asked where I wanted to be embedded, I told them, "the redder, the better" (red means hostile). So they packed me off to Camp Corregidor in eastern Ramadi with the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The 506th's official motto is "Currahee,"...

KIRKUK, Iraq – Bastogne Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division saved the life of an insurgent near Kirkuk, Iraq , May 23 after the grenade the insurgent threw exploded on him, causing severe injuries to his lower extremities. Iraqi soldiers were manning their post in Hawijah, a city just west of Kirkuk , when a man approached and tossed a grenade at their position. The grenade bounced off the roof of the structure the soldiers were in, falling back to the ground and exploding, severely cutting and burning the man. Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 101st...

Father of 2 believed his sacrifice was making a difference ELK GROVE, SACRAMENTO COUNTY Like so many young soldiers, Army Spc. Ty John Johnson joined the military for the benefits -- money for college, a steady paycheck for his family. But he stayed to make a difference. In fact, Johnson, 28, felt so strongly about the work he was doing in Iraq that a few weeks ago he re-enlisted for six years -- right around the time he left for his second tour in the war zone, said his twin brother, Blake Johnson. Ty Johnson died Tuesday when an improvised...

Soldiers Build Trust with Local People Bastogne soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne have a mission with the dualityof destroying the insurgency and rebuilding the nation by garnering trust from the local populace. By U.S. Army Spc. Michael Pfaff 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment Kirkuk, Iraq, March 23, 2006 — Bastogne soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne have a mission with the duality of destroying the insurgency and rebuilding the nation by garnering trust from the local populace. Many times, these missions go hand-in-hand, but can be reflective of each other. Destroying the...

March 23, 2006 Good News & Bad From Iraq's Front Lines by Joe Katzman at March 23, 2006 02:58 PM Tony writes in with a tip from the Peoples' Republic of Boulder, CO. This guy is a hero: "I ran back to the lead vehicle and told the major what was up. He agreed with me that we didn't have time to try and get them to retrieve their own. He asked me what I wanted to do. I said I want to get them sir. So the plan was to take the lead vehicle with the .50 cal...

US Iraq campaign 'to last days' The US military says some 1,500 US and Iraqi troops are involved The US military says a major operation targeting suspected Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters near Samarra could continue for several days. The biggest airborne operation in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, it involves more than 50 aircraft and 1,500 Iraqi and US troops. They are said to have detained about 40 suspects so far, and seized weapons. The Iraqi foreign minister said the aim was to stop insurgents from turning the town into a stronghold. A bomb attack on...

WASHINGTON - The remains of four U.S. servicemen missing in action since the Vietnam War have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial, the Pentagon said Tuesday. All from the Army's 101st Airborne Division, they are Maj. Jack L. Barker of Waycross, Ga.; Capt. John F. Dugan of Roselle, N.J.; Sgt. William E. Dillender of Naples, Fla.; and Pfc. John J. Chubb of Gardena, Calif. Chubb will be buried in Inglewood, Calif., this week. Barker, Dugan and Dillender will be buried in April in Arlington National Cemetery, said the Defense Department POW/Missing Personnel Office. Their helicopter...

KIRKUK, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 14, 2006) – Married Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division gathered at the Bastogne Chapel on Forward Operating Base Warrior on Valentines Day to rededicate their love for their spouses back home. “The ceremony was informal,” said Capt. Jerry Sherbourne, the 426th Brigade Support Battalion chaplain, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. “But it was an opportunity for us who are deployed and separated and far away to show we meant our vows and we still do.” More than 30 BSB Soldiers found time between missions to remember their spouses and rededicate their marriage vows in...

Telegram to President Eisenhower, 1957.Little Rock Ark Sep 30 The President The White House We the parents of nine Negro children enrolled at Little Rock Central High School want you to know that your action in safe guarding their rights have strengthened our faith in democracy. Now as never before we have an abiding felling of belonging and purposefulness. We believe that freedom and equality with which all men are endowed at birth can be maintained only through freedom and equality of opportunity for self development growth and purposeful citizenship. We believe that the degree to which people everywhere realize...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 26, 2005 – It was 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and it was raining at an air base in Kuwait. The "moon dust" that overlays everything in the country was now a gooey mire that stuck to everything. Contrary to popular belief, it does get cold in the Middle East, and it was wet and cold. About 60 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division waited in a tent for a flight to Baghdad. They had been there a while, as previously scheduled flights were diverted or cancelled. They sat or stretched out on aluminum Army cots, and slept...

December 24, 2005 Release A051224a Large cache destroyed near Bayji TIKRIT, Iraq – Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team thought they had discovered a single cache of weapons near Bayji Dec. 20 after a tip from a local resident. On Dec. 23, the Soldiers finished unearthing the last of the weapons from the eleventh cache at the site. “This place is basically an ammo supply point for the enemy,” said Capt. Matt Bartlett, commander of Company B, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment. “Any attack they wanted to do, whether an IED or small-arms, they could get...

The plane carrying peacekeepers home from Sinai went down on takeoff at Gander. By FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES GANDER, NFLD. -- Joe McGuire was at home asleep on the morning of Dec. 12, 1985, when the ring of his telephone jarred him awake with news that an airplane went down after takeoff from Gander International Airport. The Arrow Air charter flight carried 248 U.S. soldiers and eight civilian crew. McGuire, then assistant commander for the RCMP in Gander, rushed to the scene. "When I got down there, it was still burning and everything was black," McGuire says in Gander, where...

The words still turn stomachs 20 years later: "No survivors." Malinda Parris was preparing to welcome her husband home for the holidays from a mission in Egypt when she first heard them. She had decorated the house, baked wildly to fill the kitchen with his favorite foods and was dressing to go to a homecoming ceremony at Fort Campbell. All that stopped when the television flashed with news that would change her life. A plane carrying her husband, Rudy, an Army pilot, and 247 other soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division home from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai had...

Ceremonies mark ’85 Gander crash 248 U.S. soldiers killed instantly The Chronicle Herals From Our Wire Services December 12, 2005 GANDER, N.L. — Twenty years later, Joe McGuire vividly remembers getting the call. He was at home, asleep the morning of Dec. 12, 1985, when the ring of his telephone jarred him awake with news that an airplane went down after takeoff from the Gander International Airport. There were 248 U.S. soldiers on board the Arrow Air charter flight and eight civilian crew. McGuire, then the assistant commander for the RCMP in Gander, rushed to the scene. "When I got...

EDITORS NOTE: AP writer Ryan Lenz is embedded with the 3rd Brigade of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq and will be filing periodic reports on life in that unit. --- SUNDAY, Dec. 11, 5:15 p.m. local. BEIJI, Iraq. Going outside the wire. It's a slang expression for leaving the security of a military base in Iraq to travel on highways pocked with holes from roadside explosions. Silence runs deep during that moment soldiers cross the barrier lined with concertina wire and guard posts. At first their silence struck me as boredom, which sometimes it surely is if...

(AP) An unidentified soldier from the 101st Airborne Division, left, guards an Iraqi man temporarily... Full Image Google sponsored links Study Abroad Programs - Full degree and short term courses Over 40 detailed country profiles www.learnoverseas.com Support our troops - Draft the Twins - ribbon ribbons bumper stickers shirts etc. dontblamemeivoted4kerry.com SHARQA, Iraq (AP) - With a masked translator at their side, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division have spent weeks on dusty village streets ahead of next week's Iraqi election. Patrols have collected information on polling sites in case an emergency arises and ensured safekeeping of the nation's ballots....

Task Force Baghdad soldiers rescued two kidnapping victims during a routine vehicle search at a checkpoint in western Baghdad on Dec. 1, military officials in Iraq said today. Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, found two Iraqi civilians bound and gagged in the trunk of a white sedan. The two individuals, employed by an American contractor, claimed they had been taken hostage and were to be murdered. The car's driver and a passenger had false Iraqi police badges and were carrying pistols. They were detained. In the north-central region of Iraq, Iraqi and...

FOB WARRIOR, Iraq — Soldiers stationed in north-central Iraq celebrated a cheerful but contemplative Thanksgiving, thousands of miles and a war zone apart from their families. Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division of Ft. Campbell, Ky., kicked off the day with a real American tradition: football. In the cool and surprisingly autumn-like morning, Air Force and Army teams cheerfully tossed the pigskin on a dusty, makeshift football field. Despite the lack of family, real alcohol and home cooking, soldiers cheerfully tucked into their meals. Brigade officers dished out turkey, prime rib, Cornish hen, smoked ham, lobster,...

Taste of Freedom: A Soldier's Letter to America USA/SGT Walter J. Rausch & 1st Platoon 101st Airborne Division November 21, 2005 - The following is a letter sent to the Mother of an American soldier currently serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. Per his request - via his Mother - we offer it to you. Special thanks to Jack and Carol Ott for getting this to us: Mom, Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in...

I received an email from a mother whose son is currently fighting in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. He and his platoon have penned a message to the American public that is a little different from the message we are getting via the MSM. He asked his mom to help get this message out and she asked me. Here it is from the soldiers on the ground… Mom, Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another...

Peter Springer lost an eye to an Iraqi suicide bomber -- and then joined the Army Rangers On the morning of December 9, 2003, Peter Sprenger was 2 weeks from the end of an eventful tour in Iraq. He'd been at the "tip of the spear," in army parlance, spending the preceding 10 months roaring through the invasion of Iraq, occupying Baghdad, securing other restive towns. As a member of the 101st Airborne Division, he had a clear mission: to probe for trouble and take care of it. But on that particular morning, the trouble found him. Corporal Sprenger drew...

(AP) GREELEY, Colo. The funeral for a soldier from Evans killed while serving in Iraq was held on Friday, Veterans' Day. Pvt. 1st Class Tyler Ryan MacKenzie, 20, died Nov. 2 when a roadside bomb blew up south of Baghdad near the Humvee he and his fellow soldiers were riding in. MacKenzie was assigned to the First Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was the first Weld County resident killed in the Iraq war.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The 101st Airborne Division (search) on Thursday reactivated a historic unit whose actions during World War II and Vietnam were the subject of the book "Band of Brothers." (search) The 506th Regimental Combat Team — also known as the "Currahees," a Cherokee Indian word meaning "stands alone" — returned to the division just as its soldiers were completing final preparations to return to Iraq.

Baghdad, Iraq – Major General Joseph Taluto, commanding general, 42nd Infantry Division, participated in a ribbon cutting of the 101st Airborne Division’s future headquarters last weekend at Forward Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. The 101st Airborne Division will be relieving the 42nd Infantry Division before the end of the year. The new facility, known as the ‘D Main’ will be a fully functional division headquarters consisting of 51,000 square feet when elements of the ‘Screaming Eagles’ arrive in the fall. The facility is the largest single structure built to date in Iraq for coalition forces. The U.S. Army Corps...